


Home Is Where The Heart Is

by HomewardDove



Series: Live From New York... [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Newspaper Article, Team Bonding, team dinner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 05:34:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2639987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomewardDove/pseuds/HomewardDove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><br/>In which the public gets a glimpse of life in Avengers Tower thanks to a rookie reporter and a frustrated Pepper Potts.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Is Where The Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Adorable couple bathing and rude best friend ahead.

Harley Edison was working up a sweat on the treadmill located just on the other side of the floor where the bedroom she shared with her boyfriend, Steve Rogers, was located in Avengers Tower when her phone rang and the face of her best friend appeared. “Yes, Tony? You’re interrupting my morning sweat.”  Harley greeted, slowing the speed of the machine to a slower speed so that she could speak to the billionaire superhero without huffing and puffing.

“Oh, I sincerely apologize, princess, but I’ve got much more pressing issues than your morning sweat,” Tony replied, snarkily, enjoying the playful banter he shared with Harley, who just a few short years ago had been a nurse in a failing urgent care before she’d saved his life one night when he’d gotten a little cocky in the suit against some bad guys. He’d owed her a debt, and what better way to pay her back than to give her a seven figure salary at a Fortune 500 Company doing work she very much enjoyed.

“I know you’ve got issues, believe me, old man. What is it today?” Harley questioned, jumping off the treadmill, ripping her headphones out of her ears and  bringing her phone up to her ear so that she could speak to Tony properly while she made her way out of the gym and down the hall towards her bedroom.

“Don’t start with the old man shit, you’re dating a man like 50 years older than I am. Tell me something, I’ve heard that the downstairs gets a bit…saggy as the years go by. You have any information about that?”

“Tony, stop thinking about my boyfriend’s genitalia and tell me what your problem is.” Harley entered her room, making a beeline for the bathroom after stopping for a bit to take in the sight of her boyfriend sleeping soundly in their bed. It wasn’t often that Harley got to witness Steve in a sleeping state, he was so stuck in his routine of awaking early to run and keep his physical fitness sharp that even Harley who woke early than most people to get an early start to her job almost never got to see him sleeping. He looked like an angel, his head resting comfortably on the forearm of the appendage he had bent behind him so that it sat just about his broad shoulders. He slept shirtless these days, Harley appreciated the view for sure and silently congratulated herself on steadily stealing all of his sleeping shirts for herself so that he had none left to sleep in. She let herself enjoy the sight for just a few more moments before getting into the bathroom in just enough time for Tony to start prattling on in her ear.

“Look, I love Pepper, okay?” Tony paused considering how drastically his life had changed since he’d admitted he held actual emotions in his body. Pepper had changed him, supposedly for the better, although it was moments like these that made him question that fact. “But this time she’s gone too far. I don’t even know what she’d thinking with all of this. You! You need to talk to her. Maybe your magical womanly powers will counteract with hers. Although maybe you should have that conversation somewhere other than my tower, I don’t want your residual angry woman magic to react badly with my innate masculinity and send the whole place sky high, you know?” Tony rambled on and on while Harley ran the water for her bath, shaking her head and sighing with every sentence Tony completed.

“Tony, I can’t actually talk to Pepper about _it_ , if I don’t know what _it_  is. What’s going on, Tony?” Harley stopped the flow of the bathtub water while she asked Tony the question, sitting on the side of the tub, hoping this conversation with him would end quickly so that she could enjoy the first bath she’d been able to draw in months before she had to get her day.

“Several things before I get to that one, was that bathwater or pee I just heard, because ew? Two, is Steve going to join you in that bathtub because ew, and also grandpa’s already defrosted, he shouldn’t need a warm soak? And three, are you naked?”

“One, bathtub water, you know I’ll only number two on the phone, not number one. Two, if my boyfriend wants to join me in the bath, he is more than welcome, and I can promise you he is plenty warm. And three, you are disgusting. Bye.” Harley got ready to hang up, stopped only by the hilarity of Tony’s desperate pleas to remain on the line.

“Wait, wait, wait, I just asked about the naked thing because we’re BFF’s and also you know I need to be able to accurately depict what’s going happening on the other side of the phone in order to have a good conversation. C’mon girlfriend…” Harley finally hung up on the billionaire, setting her phone on the sink counter before shedding her clothes and sinking into the warm, relaxing bath. She had just gotten comfortable, her eyes closed and her head resting back against the side of the tub when the door to the bathroom opened and one dewy eyed, sleep ridden Captain Steve Rogers stumbled into the room, clad in just his sweatpants, his hands balled into fists and rubbing at his eyes.

“Hey there, sleepyhead, how’re you feeling?” Harley asked, the bubbles shifting around her as her boyfriend’s eyes ran all over her bubble clad body. Harley surveyed Steve’s upper torso, taking an inventory of all the bumps and bruises he’d come home with the night before from his last mission, to find them mostly healed. There was still a huge black and blue bruise along his ribs, that was even now before her eyes starting to change color, where he must’ve gotten hit pretty hard by an adversary. It didn’t matter to her that she could always see his body healing at an unnaturally fast rate, every little scrape he came home with caused her stress.

“Well rested. How long have you been up?” Steve inquired, running the water from the sink warm enough so that he could wash his face. He almost never slept in longer than Harley, who got up at 5 most days to get in her workout before she had to go to work at Stark Industries.

“A couple hours. I had an early morning call with the jerks from Australia. Super boring, they’re lucky I didn’t fall asleep. And, would it kill them to get up early once to accommodate my time zone, would it?” Harley remarked, ignoring her phone when the screen lit up with Tony’s picture again. “You gonna join me, Captain?” Harley asked, smiling invitingly at the broad shouldered, handsome, blonde man leaning against the counter of their sink smiling back at her.

Steve debated for only a quick moment, the bare skin of his girlfriend’s leg, enticing him as she bent her knee out of the tub, before he stepped towards the large bathtub, dropping his sweatpants along the way and settling in nicely behind Harley like they had done so many times in the past. “This is nice.” Steve commented, bringing his arms around her front, his forearms resting just under the curve of her breasts, his left hand’s thumb brushing gently across the underside of it and even sometimes reaching up to run a blunt nail against her rapidly hardening nipple. It wasn’t sexual in the last, just a simple soothing motion that Steve used when they were embracing like this.

The super solider glanced over at the small table next to their tub, noticing that Harley’s phone was lighting up with Tony’s face continually. “Do you need to answer that?” Steve questioned, reaching over to pick up the device and shaking his head at the picture on the screen, obviously something that Tony had taken himself, a glamour shot of just his face and something Harley had reluctantly taught him was called a ‘selfie’.

“Nope, not answering. Tony’s being an idiot and all of my attention is gonna stay right here until we have to get up and get ready for work. You’ve been gone for the past week, I haven’t seen nearly enough of you lately.” Harley reached over to the hand that was holding the phone and guided him to drop it back on the table, then settling back into his chest, sighing and then relaxing again. They got perhaps five minutes of uninterrupted silence and peace when a voice came booming through their bedroom door, causing both of them to jump with a start as the familiar tone came closer.

“Cap and Harley’s room. Hm, they usually make their bed before they leave for the day, how weird, maybe they forgot today…” Tony guided Pepper and their guest through the door, smirking already as his gaze zeroed in on the open doorway leading into the bathroom, thinking of the delicious embarrassment the couple was about to suffer because Harley had been a brat to him.

“Any reason we started the tour here, Tony?” Pepper questioned, trying to surreptitiously text Harley to find out her whereabouts.

“Oh no, I just think this is a great starting point. Cap is the oldest on the squad, age before beauty, I always say. Hey, let’s see the bathroom.” Tony ranted out as he grabbed their young guest by the arm and dragging her over to the doorway and silently hearing a roar of applause when they got there and found Harley and Steve frozen in the tub, then genetically altered super solider sitting back against the tub with his girlfriend settled between his splayed legs. All of their bits and pieces thankfully covered by lots of bubbles and their faces perfect examples of a shocked expression. Tony found himself wondering if he could create a new emoji based solely on their image in this moment.

There were about ten seconds of stunned silence as all five people in the room tried to adjust to the situation at hand and then all hell broke loose.

“I’m going to kill you Tony Stark!” Harley shrieked, making a move to get out of the tub but was held back by Steve, who whispered into her ear to remind her that they were completely naked underneath the water, which only set off her anger and made her more aggressive than anyone had ever seen her. “Tony!! I swear to all that you hold dear I am going to kill you dead! What the hell is your problem? Pepper! What is happening?” Harley yelled as Tony stood there smirking proudly and Pepper worked on ushering their young, equally stunned guest out of the room. Once Pepper had returned, Tony had taken a seat on the stool that sat in front of the vanity and Harley was trying to throw various bathtub objects in the billionaire’s general direction, cursing her luck that the fact she was naked and that Steve was trying to restrain her were really hurting her accuracy. “Oh my God, Pepper, you are not going to have a fiancé very, very soon. As soon as I have clothes on, I am going to erase you from existence, Stark!” Harley promised as Pepper gathered the tan blonde’s black silk robe, a gift from Natasha all the girls had gotten last Christmas, and a large, white towel for Steve, who usually air dried after he got out of the shower much to Harley’s enjoyment. Once the couple were properly covered, Harley ran over to Tony and got in a couple good slaps to his handsome fact before Steve grabbed her around the waist with one arm while the other focused on keeping the towel around his waist to maintain his modesty in front of their friends.

“Thanks for the backup, Cap.” Tony stated as he stood up and behind Pepper, putting ond more person between him and the snarling blonde woman.

“I’m not helping you here, Stark. I’m just trying to make sure Harley doesn’t break her hand on your face. She needs it for work.” Steve replied, sending a glare Tony’s way and adjusting his grip on Harley’s waist so as not to hurt her as she struggled out of his grasp.

“She’ll probably need it for something else too, huh Cap?” Tony implied, making an up and down motion with his half clenched fist. Steve was half tempted to just let Harley go have at it, knowing her hand to hand combat was levels beyond Stark’s. The only thing that stopped him from doing so was the pleading look on Pepper’s face. So instead he just whispered into Harley’s ear for her to calm down so they could just sort it all out like adults.

“Fine, fine,” Harley conceded, relaxing into Steve’s embrace settling against his chest in order to center herself in her distressed emotional state, “What the holy hell is going on, Pep?” Harley asked, pulling her damp hair up into a loose ponytail so that she could feel more put together than she actually was, like she wasn’t standing clad in her robe in her bathroom with her amazingly fit boyfriend immediately behind her just in a towel, leaving his chiseled chest out in view of her supposed best friend, Tony Stark and his fiancé, Pepper Potts.

“First of all, I would just like to apologize on behalf of my very idiotic, very stupid fiancé for his actions today. He’s very pretty and also a genius, but apparently he’s not very smart” Pepper paused, letting Tony shout his rebuttal about not being both stupid and idiotic at once before pressing on. “Secondly, the girl that was just in here is a reporter…”

“A _reporter_? Oh my God, Tony! What would possess you to bring a reporter into my bathroom while I’m sharing a bath with my boyfriend? Why would you do that?” Harley screamed, ignoring the chastisement  from Pepper that the young girl was still just outside the door.

Tony remained silent, eyeing the blazing blue eyes of his best friend as if at any moment she was going to fly at him and scratch his face off with her bare hands. “Okay, if I’m  going to be honest with you here I was a little upset that you hung up on me…”

“Oh my God, Tony, you brought a reporter into my safe space because you were upset I hung  up on you? Grow up, dude.” Harley yelled, lunging at Tony again only to be stopped by Steve’s arms once more.

“Well, if you hadn’t hung up on me, you would’ve been able to hear me tell you that I was mad at Pepper because she arranged a reporter to come to our Tower and follow us around for the day!”

All eyes turned to Pepper as Tony ended his statement, the ginger haired woman shirting from one foot to the other under the steady gaze of the other three people in the room.

“You invited a reporter into the Tower?” Steve broke the silence, finally letting go of Harley, feeling safe that she wasn’t going to attack Tony at this point. He addressed Pepper respectfully, she was still a very powerful woman and a respect worthy one as well. But even Steve and his strong set of morals couldn’t help his anger towards her for allowing this reporter to come into their house in the first place.

“Look, I apologize for springing this on you guys at the last minute. I meant to do it a lot sooner but some of you were called away on that mission and then I was called back to Los Angeles and I didn’t think it was something we should discuss over the phone, oceans away And then to be honest, I sort of forgot it was scheduled for today. But listen, she’s a really sweet kid. She’s a journalism student at NYU, she doesn’t have any affiliations to any big newspapers except for her University’s. Please, can we just…we need to go through with this. The Avengers name has always been synonymous with protection but not so much with relatability,” Pepper paused, looking towards Harley for her coming approval. “Please, you guys, we need this.”

There was a silence for a while, Tony and Steve sharing glances and then both of them looking towards Harley for her take, knowing her logical mind was processing the pros and cons much faster than they could.

“Alright, let’s do this.”

**My Day With the Avengers**

**aka the most surreal day of my life**

_**by Gabrielle Borchard** _

_Pepper Potts called me on the second day of my third year at NYU, it was exactly 12:17 PM, two minutes after I’d been let out from my first class of the day, it could have been a coincidence but after everything I gathered from my day at the Avengers Tower there’s no doubt in my mind that Stark Industries CEO Pepper Potts had my schedule beforehand. I don’t why I was chosen for this particular, extraordinary opportunity. I’ve decided not to question it at all and just go ahead and tell you guys what the hell is happening up in that big fancy tower in the sky that we all stare at when we’re downtown._

_There was a car waiting for me at 8AM at the entrance to my apartment, a large man in a black suit holding the door open for me with a large smile on his face. When I plopped down in the backseat, my dress already digging uncomfortably into my body, I had not expected to see the ginger haired CEO and one of TIME’s most influential women in business to be sitting in the seat across. Her hair was pulled up loosely in a bun and she was donning one of her infamous skirt suits, a pile of folders in her lap and a pen scribbling furiously on one of the pages on the open folder sitting at the top of the pile._

_“Hello, it’s lovely to meet you, Ms. Borchard. I’m Virginia Potts, you can call me Pepper, everybody does. I hope you don’t mind that I’ve hijacked your ride, but I had a few things to do this morning and it seemed wasteful to take a different car when this one was already heading out this way. Also, I hope you’re hungry, I have to go pick up some bagels for everyone back at the Tower. Do you like bagels?”_

_These are the first words I hear Pepper Potts speak in person. She likes to talk, Ms. Potts does. I learned that quickly enough. She gave me a rundown of pretty much her entire life on the ride from my apartment to the coffee shop/bakery (Pepper asked that I leave the establishment nameless given the Avengers propensity for going there) and then finally to Avengers Tower. The ride over was pleasant, if not surreal. Just being in a car with Pepper Potts is weird enough, but I’ve never felt as strange as I did when we pulled into the very well-guarded parking garage._

_I doubt you’re reading this article solely to figure out how I was feeling (unless you’re my mom, in that case, hi Mom!). You’re probably reading this in order to get an inside look at what happens in Avengers Tower and more importantly, on the everyday interactions between those superheroes we call the Avengers._

_It’s exactly 7:17 when we step out of the vehicle, I know this because this is when I start taking my very detailed notes and also when I turn on my recorder (yes, I did remember Pepper’s opening statement solely by memory). It’s 7:23 and one brief tour of the lobby later when Tony Stark, Iron Man himself, shows up, in spectacular fashion as always. He coasts in fully decked out in his stylish red and gold suit, the metal one, not the awful polyester one that he somehow pulled off at the first and only press conference that had been held at the Tower. (Before reporters realized that being around a monumentally tall building that housed some of the most powerful people in the universe, and therefore the most targeted, maybe wasn’t the greatest idea for their health and well-being.) Tony Stark, surprisingly short in stature, although his personality more than makes up for it, shakes my hand just briefly before turning to the woman who runs his company, and also plays the part of his future wife, and greeting her with a sound kiss on the lips._

_“Mornin’ Pep, mind if I take over your tour here? I’m sure Ms. Borchard won’t.” He knows my name, and that in itself flabbergasts me. Although it shouldn’t, many things can be said about Mr. Stark that might deflame his character but no one can say that the man doesn’t do his research._

_His hijacking of our tour happens slowly and then all at once (which may be a quote from a very famous author, so don’t sue me please). Pepper has just barely given Tony, as I’m insisted by Pepper to call him, as there is no such insistence from the aforementioned billionaire, an affirmative nod when he’s ushering us towards the private elevator on the left most side of the building and we’re all stepping inside, Tony shutting the doors firmly on a man with a badge that identifies him as a SHIELD lab technician. He then starts speaking into the air in front of him and I’m stuck wondering if there are any negative side effects of being stuck in a metal suit all of the time. I’m later informed by Harley Edison, Captain America’s girlfriend and a veritable threat to evil as the Director of Philanthropic Ventures at Stark Industries, that he was speaking to JARVIS, his super computer of something like that, although Harley describes it like “the only friend he has that can’t punch him when he says something rude” (at this point she cracks her knuckles in Tony’s direction, which has everything to do with what happened after I’m led out of the elevator and down a long hallway by an almost giddy Tony Stark)._

_I’ve never been one for bragging but this, this is just something I can’t refrain from bragging about (sorry Harley). I definitely walked in on Captain America himself, Steve Rogers, and the beautiful blonde California girl that is his girlfriend, Harley Edison, sharing a bath._

_Let that sink in. Just let it sink._

_Just let it settle in your brain and make sure you file, save and backup on a hard drive the picture away in the most trust worthy and reliable part of your memory because I sure have._

_Okay, are you ready to move on?_

_Here we go._

_Tony Stark led us into the shared bedroom of Harley Edison and Steve Rogers, otherwise known as Mr. and Mrs. Apple Pie. The room is impeccably decorated, and surprisingly modern with the exception of a few things here and there (a typewriter, which is actually Harley’s, a vintage radio because there is still a station that plays old music from Steve’s time and it comforts him when he’s down, all of the modern technology is quarantined to one side of the room on a beautiful oak desk that Harley does work at when she has time), it’s a warm dark blue color on the walls and perfect wood flooring with tasteful rugs strewn about various places in the room. Their bed is just mounds of white fluff, a comforter, an electric blanket, tons of pillows (some plain white, some white with gold accents). It was left made up on one side and not on the other, Harley informs me that she is the one who makes her side of the bed, Steve is habitually messy since having to be so tidy during his years in the army (before the ice bath)._

_But back to the issue at hand, Tony made a beeline for the bathroom, which probably should’ve been our first clue that he was up to something, but I was just super stoked to be there and I assume Pepper was just blinded by Tony’s superior attractiveness and innate charm, at least that’s only if you take Tony at his word._

_When we walked through that doorway everything because abundantly clear to me. I felt like I’d pretty much solved every mystery of the universe upon setting my eyes on Steve Rogers and his girlfriend naked in the bath together, only a few tasteful bubbles granting them any coverage at all._

_I would like to throw this disclaimer out there now. I offered to Harley and Steve not to write about this after I’d gotten to spend the day with them and realizing their pretty amazing people. I realized at this point two very important things. One: I don’t think I’m very prepared for a career in journalism, because as Harley boldly pointed out a real cutthroat journalist wouldn’t have even asked before publishing something like that, and the fact that I would ask made me a better person than 93% of the journalists she’d ever had the pleasure to work with. (This is a direct quote. Where the statistic of 93% came from…I’ll never know but I’m pretty sure Harley meant it as a very precise and accurate 93%.)_

_America’s golden couple Captain Steve Rogers and Harley Edison (who share the title of America’s golden couple with only the President and his wife, willingly and exclusively) told me to go ahead and take their bath story to print. It was sure to jumpstart my career as a journalist (Harley’s reasoning) and who really care that a man and his significant other bathe together, it was really no big deal (Steve’s)._

_So thank you, Steve and Harley, for allowing me to use your naked water time as a starting point for my article, for making me realize journalism isn’t what I want to do, and for being the most gracious hosts to a small town girl from Ohio, currently up to her ears in student loan debt, following around a band of superheroes in their great, phallic Tower in the sky. You guys are quite literally the “bees knees”._

_After Harley, Steve, Tony and Pepper finished up whatever fight they’d been having in the bathroom after kicking me out, Harley approached, extending her hand in introduction and smiling a smile that I’m sure she uses on business people when she wants them to donate gobs of money to whatever charity she’s supporting at the moment. (Her favorite at the moment are AdoptUSKids.org, which offers information about fostering and adopting the 102,000 children and youth in the U.S. foster care system, and also, the American Cancer Society, as well as an abundance of others. Harley always encourages people to do research on any charity they plan to donate to and always try to start locally, there are always small charities that are right in your town that could use your help. There’s also nothing easier than to set aside a portion of whatever you’re having for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and taking it to someone in need of a warm meal.)_

_(Steve tells me that Harley takes a few trays of hot coffee and breakfast sandwiches down to the camp of homeless youths that live just three blocks away in a barranca every Sunday morning. She lets them wash their clothes in the Tower and then she sets them out onto the town to find a job. When I asked Steve why she just didn’t hire them on as Stark employees or get Pepper to, he responds with a smile so big and proud it almost makes me want to puke all over his ACDC shirt (a gift from Harley, obviously), because Steve says she’d already tried that. Despite her chief job being to find charities to convince rich people and their companies to donate to, Harley really detests the idea of charity and so, apparently, do the group of homeless youths she spends her Sundays with. Those boys would rather stay out on the streets than take anything they think they haven’t earned. So Harley brings them coffee and breakfast, lets them wash their clothes, print up their resumes and then sets them up on numerous job interviews during the day. Steve says she’s been doing this for as long as they’ve been together and certainly before then, they met doing community service after the Battle of New York, of course.)_

_Harley Edison charms me into loving her within five seconds of meeting her, with her clothes on this time too. So when she offers to show me around the Tower because Tony is, and I quote, “a deplorable person of heinous nature and spending any more time in his presence is surely to cripple your spirit.” And this is how the rest of my day with the Avengers go._

_8: 12 We take the elevator back down to what Harley explains is the common area, the floors that hold the armory, living room, kitchen and the movie theater. Tony tries to add something here but Harley silences him with a quick, precise jab to the testicles. Both Pepper and Steve look oddly proud._

_8:15 Harley starts cooking breakfast with Pepper and Steve’s help. She explains that they used to have a cook but between Thor and Steve and their ability to consume ridiculous amounts of food as well as the unique dynamic of equal parts super spy assassins, green rage monster, a 95 year old super solider, a Norwegian god, and an egotistical robot man plus all their sidekicks and significant others, every cook they hired quit before 24 hours hit on their first day. One even chased Clint out of the kitchen with a rolling pin, they still weren’t sure how it happened, that particular cook had been Russian and only Natasha knew what she’d screamed on her way out, but the redhead had only smiled and shook her head every time she was asked._

_8:33 Bruce Banner arrives, unsurprised by my presence. Pepper admits to sending him an email to better prepare him. He has a good grip on the big guy, he says, but he still tries to avoid a lot of surprises living with these guys brings enough stress on a daily basis._

_8:42 Thor and Jane Foster arrive. I did a paper on Dr. Foster for my previous year’s Women in Science class, so a bit of a fangirl moment happens when she introduces herself. (Tony whines that I hadn’t been that excited to see him.) I’m so amazed by Dr. Foster, she tells me to call her Jane but I just can’t bring myself to, she’s like a science god, that I fail to notice the actual god beside her until he’s right in front of me. His hands dwarfs mine when I shake it, and I’m amazed by his presence just a little less than by Dr. Foster’s._

_9:00 Harley announces breakfast is ready and everyone starts migrating towards the huge circular dining table. I realize not that the bagels Pepper and I picked up are only a small portion of the spread Harley has assembled. (There’s also muffins, Harley made them yesterday, fresh fruit, and all the fixings to make some amazing breakfast burritos) Harley informs me they only do breakfasts like this on the day after a mission. Steve, Tony and Thor had just returned the previous night from a mission. Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton, those two super spy assassins I mentioned earlier, are not present because they’re still on a small recon mission and were due back sometime in the afternoon. There was to be a big dinner, (this time ordering out, Harley says with a smile, she’s pretty good at cooking large meals but twice in one day is just asking for punishment. She’s from a big family, five older brothers and too many cousins to count, so she’d been trained growing up on how to cook for large amounts of people.) at which they spend most of their time catching up with each other, just making sure everyone had been clued in on anything they may have missed._

_9:45 We abandon the dishes to Tony, Thor and Steve. Steve feels that those who don’t do the majority of the cooking should clean, Thor loves pressing the buttons on the industrial dishwasher, and Harley’s decided doing the dishes will be step one of the five step plan she’s created for Tony to earn back her love. She tells me later she’s already forgiven him but somehow Tony being willing to do these things for her just solidifies her decision to still be friends with him._

_10:00 We spend an hour and a half taking the complete tour of the Tower. We walk through the lobby at one point and Pepper get pulled away on Stark Industries business, leaving just Harley and Dr. Foster until the doctor gets pulled away by a SHIELD lab technician who needed a second opinion on some readings he’d gotten._

_11:30 There’s a manic beeping coming from Harley’s phone. It’s informing her that Natasha and Clint had just arrived. She practically sprints for the elevator, yelling for me to hurry and keep up or get left behind. I’m explained on the way up that Harley loves Natasha and Clint, she says they’re the funniest people on the planet. When I meet them the funniest people on the planet thing seems pretty far-fetched, given that upon first glance they look like the two most dangerous people on Earth, which I’m pretty sure they are if all my research and everything people have told me is to be believed. Natasha Romanov stands tall in the living room, just pulling a new clean shirt on because  her black leather catsuit lays crumpled on the ground next to her. Her face wears a bruise on the left side and her partner looks even worse for the wear. He’s bleeding from a small laceration down his left bicep and from one on the right side of his face along his jaw line. Harley rushes over, clearly more worried about Clint’s wounds than Natasha is._

_12:13 Harley has Clint sitting on one of the stools at the kitchen bar and is tending to his wounds with glove covered hands while Steve plates up grilled cheeses and leftover homemade chicken noodle soup that I’m informed Dr. Banner’s girlfriend, Lana, makes the day before anyone’s due back from a mission. They chat amicably for a few minutes while Harley finishes dressing Clint’s wounds, neither of the newcomers comments on my presence although they do answer the few questions I have. (“Was your mission successful?” “Yes,” “Any details?” “No.”)_

_1:37 Harley finishes the tour of the Tower, Captain Rogers in tow. It’s amazing to see them interact with each member of the Avengers team (and even nonmembers) in such different ways. The first thing I notice is that the Captain is never more than three feet away from his girlfriend, and he never misses a chance to reach out and touch her if he can. The second is how perfectly suited they are for each other, even despite their generational gap. I see it when we stop first in the labs where Dr. Banner is working on something way beyond my comprehension. Harley hugs him immediately, a big, tight hug that makes it seem like it’s been years since they’ve seen each other rather than the mere hours it’s been since breakfast. I get the feeling Dr. Banner doesn’t get hugged an awful lot, probably something to do with his big green alter ego, but Harley shows no hesitation with her affection. Likewise, Steve claps Bruce on the shoulder and ask him how Lana’s doing on her trip. (Lana Constantine is also a doctor, but a medical doctor who is on a mission to an undisclosed location doing an undisclosed doctor thing.) When we run into Dr. Foster and her intern, Darcy Lewis, Harley makes sure Dr. Foster has gotten something for lunch while Steve handles Darcy’s aggressive flirting and prodding with grace and laughter._

_3:00 I finally get a few minutes to spend with the famous Norse God, Thor, and let me tell you, it’s amazing. He is just as amazing as everyone thinks he is. He’s hilarious, mostly because he has no idea how things in this world work and his ever expanding grasp on things might be more skewed than his not knowing in the first place._

_5:11 At this time they start gathering for dinner. Steve tells me that having two meals together with the whole team in one day is uncommon, but they’d had a particularly rough week and group meals tend to help them unwind. We’re only fifteen minutes into the meal when alarms start going off in the dining room and everyone looks to Tony for answers. He, in turn, calls out for an answer from JARVIS, who informs him that there is someone unidentified in the elevator riding up with Dr. Lana Constantine, who had been planning to surprise Bruce with an early return from her trip. It takes less than three minutes for the elevator to reach the floor we occupy, in less than two Tony, Steve, Natasha and Clint are suitably dressed and armed for battle, Thor calls out to his magic hammer, Mjolnir, which is all sorts of awesome to watch fly through the air and land in his hand. Pepper is struggling to keep Bruce from going green and Harley is struggling between keeping Pepper calm enough not to explode (a whole other story, Darcy tells me she’s basically a badass bomb, and something about Mandarin chicken) and listening to Steve’s pleas to get to safety in the panic room with me and Darcy._

_5:18 It’s eighteen minutes after 5 when the elevator doors open (Darcy and I never make it to the panic room) and the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life happens. Because in the open elevator, underneath the gaze and aim of weapons from every Avenger is Lana Constantine, being held at knifepoint by someone I once did a paper on in high school._

_James Buchanan Barnes, (who is supposed to be dead by the way.)_

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my second attempt to give you some fiction from the MCU. Hope you enjoy it as much as you enjoyed the first and maybe even more. Think of this as the start of many in a long line of stories I have to share from these people that live in my head. This takes place months after my first foray 'I Touch Myself', I can never promise that these will be in chronologically order. As a matter of fact, they won't ever be. But, hey...  
> Welcome back Bucky Barnes.  
> I never meant to include that particular character in any of these but then I got to reading some wonderful fics involving him and there was no way I could leave him out. So special thanks to those few authors who transcend what it means to be a fan fiction writer. You don't know who you are because I haven't said which fics it was.


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